For Valentine's Day, a big 'Kiss'

Autin Wright of the Sculpture Foundation untangles the statue from the wraps that carried it to its resting place Wednesday morning. The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum. The bronze statue made in the image of a famous photograph shot in New York’s Times Square on V-J Day at the end of WWII replaces a fiberglass version that was removed last year.

Autin Wright of the Sculpture Foundation untangles the statue from the wraps that carried it to its resting place Wednesday morning. The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum. The bronze statue made in the image of a famous photograph shot in New York’s Times Square on V-J Day at the end of WWII replaces a fiberglass version that was removed last year.

The sailor’s shoes were shiny, his uniform was crisp and his eyebrows were neatly groomed. The nurse’s stocking seams were straight, and her uniform was a blinding white that could put your eye out. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, San Diego’s most high-profile couple was all spiffed-up and ready to sweep the public off its feet. Again.

“Isn’t it cute?” said tourist Judy Stevens, as the 25-foot statue known as “The Kiss” was being hoisted off a flatbed truck for its installation near the USS Midway Museum. “It’s the world’s most famous kiss. Happy Valentine’s Day to all of us!”

On Wednesday, the new bronze version of the famous (and infamous) statue officially titled “Unconditional Surrender” was installed in the spot in Tuna Harbor Park where the Styrofoam version had been thrilling visitors and affronting art lovers since 2007.

The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

The statue known as The Kiss awaited its airlift from a flatbed to its final resting place Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

Autin Wright of the Sculpture Foundation undoes the cushioned wraps that held the statue as it was lifted from a flatbed trailer to its upright permanent position Wednesday morning.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

The statue known as The Kiss awaited its airlift from a flatbed to its final resting place Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

The statue known as The Kiss was firmly installed in its new location Wednesday on the grassy knoll at G Street beside the Bob Hope Memorial in the shadow of the USS Midway Museum.
— Peggy Peattie / Peggy Peattie

Artist Seward Johnson’s foam depiction of a World War II sailor and a nurse locked in a triumphant V-J Day embrace was a long-term loan from the Santa Monica-based Sculpture Foundation. But the bronze version hanging off the crane hook? Thanks to the “Save the Kiss” fundraising campaign, that one is all ours.

And as the 14,000-pound sculpture was headed toward the concrete pedestal that will probably be its eternal resting place, the love affair between a military town and a classic piece of Greatest Generation iconography continued to blossom in a huge way.

“People see this as a piece of romance from back in the day,” said Scott McGaugh, marketing director for the USS Midway Museum, which launched the million-dollar fundraising drive that helped pay for the statue. “This is a snapshot of 1945. (Nearly) seventy years later, values have changed and customs have changed, but this is still relevant because it speaks from the heart.”

The pre-Valentine’s Day journey began when the statue left the New Jersey foundry on Feb. 4. The happy couple was strapped to a flatbed truck — the sailor on his back, the nurse’s feet nearly touching the cab — and driver Ron Shaw took a southerly route, stopping along the way to let veterans’ groups take a look. And possibly leaving sacrifices to the weather gods when necessary.

“There was a storm system he was outrunning the whole time,” said Paula Stoeke, director of The Sculpture Foundation. “And I believe he gets a lot of strange looks on the highway. I think he mostly gives everyone a thumbs up out the window as he goes by.”

The sculpture traveled uncovered to avoid the friction of flapping tarps rubbing against paint, but if the nurse and the sailor experienced any grooming issues on the road, you couldn’t tell by looking at them. While the new statue is made out of bronze, it was cast in the same mold as the foam original. It was also painted in the same colors, using the glossy, fairly indestructible paint that is used on airplanes.

From the patent-leather gleam of the sailor’s shoes to the pink flush of the nurse’s clenched hands, the new statue looks exactly like the old statue, just brighter and more intricately detailed. People who thought the original looked like a mutant miniature-golf prop will still loathe it, but longtime fans like Paul Rogers will probably love it more than ever.